Battle of Flers – 1916

Battle of Flers

November 5 and 14, 1916 – Australian troops launch two attacks on a German trench system known as the Maze, near the Somme village of Flers.

In atrocious winter conditions, the Australians break into the German lines, but are held up by mud, cold and driving rain. German troops eventually counter-attack and drive the Australians back to their own lines.

The Australian Official Historian called the attack at Flers ‘the most difficult in which the AIF was ever engaged’, and it achieved nothing except to demonstrate that men ordered to fight in a quagmire would die by the score.